James Williams, 40, crossing watchman, saved John D. Jennings, 66, butcher, from being run over by a train, Farmville, Virginia, October 23, 1912. Not aware that a freight train was approaching at a speed of about 14 m.p.h., Jennings walked onto the track. Williams, who had but one arm, saw Jennings’s danger and ran to the track, facing him. He put one foot inside the rails and grabbed Jennings’s coat when the locomotive was but six feet distant. Jennings misunderstood Williams’s motive and resisted, but Williams pulled harder and got him beyond the rail. The cylinder of the locomotive struck Jennings and injured him, and the bumper timber struck Williams. Williams clung to the bumper timber and was dragged about 20 feet, then he fell to the ground at the side of the track and rolled several feet from it. He sustained injuries which disabled him 43 days. Jennings also recovered from his injuries. 10551-982
10551 – 982
10551-982